Kendrick Perkins called it “BS.” David Fizdale’s word of choice was “crap.” Jalen Rose hates it, Doris Burke thinks it’s “ridiculous,” and Twitter Eggheads, for a solid week, have been “pissed off.” All because Kawhi Leonard chose to not play in a basketball game, just like he did 22 times last season.
But last week, on Leonard’s second scheduled rest day of 2019-20, the NBA world exploded. Even fans and media members who wished to ignore the topic got sucked in. The sheer volume of the chatter, when combined with its controversial nature, presented “load management” as a problem the NBA must confront.